St. Louis Suburbs are Building Walkable Projects
Date Posted: October 15, 2024
Posted In: News, Projects,
From St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Apartments and townhomes. Shops and restaurants. Hotels and parks. All within walking distance of each other.
Across St. Louis County, some of the region’s newest suburbs are building dense real estate developments meant to serve as the municipalities’ own centers of gravity for entertainment, employment and housing where there weren’t any before.
“What is happening, and this is happening across the country, is cities are saying we are not what we used to be, and we need to do something different,” said Jonathan Barnett, a professor emeritus of city planning at the University of Pennsylvania. “And all of a sudden real estate developers are saying, ‘We want walkable, mixed-use centers.’”
Suburban cities that developed during the post-World War II boom — when cars and highways made it possible to quickly build large tracts of homes, shops and public spaces miles apart — are now looking to emulate older suburbs like Kirkwood, University City or Florissant, which have central commercial districts. The younger cities hope to repurpose places like underused malls and office parks, and recover lost tax revenues. And developers see “synergy” in building housing, grocery stores and entertainment options altogether, Barnett said.
“What used to make that commercial strip or shopping plaza work is not working as it used to,” he said. “People want diversity, they want to walk, and they want things to be close by.”
In Chesterfield, demolition of the vacant mall will pave the way for an urban “Downtown” with thousands of apartments, shops, offices, a hotel, plus public parks and trails. In Creve Coeur, half of ag giant Bayer’s former campus will be turned into a similar “village” with a main street and greenspace for public events. In Brentwood, an industrial corridor along Manchester Road is undergoing a $400 million revamp into apartments and restaurants and a public trail. Town and Country in recent years opened its “Town Square,” a 9-acre park with boutique retail and restaurants at Mason and Clayton roads.